Even Stranger Company
by ShadeShifter
Summary: Finding Home 9. The BAU team have some more encounters with Tony's team and try to make sense of them. Part 6 has characters who make their first appearance in Parasomnia, so you might want to read that first. Includes Highlander, Supernatural, Angel and Grimm.


**Part 1**

In which Dean has taught Cas to appear and disappear from concealed areas in the FBI offices, but that doesn't stop people from wondering.

...

JJ was on the fourth floor, trying to get clarification on one of the files a team had tried to hand over to the BAU. She wandered past DiNozzo's workspace to see Winchester and his trench-coated companion, looking intently at each other. She recognised the man as having been around the office before, but had never got his name.

"Are you ready?" the man asked and Winchester nodded firmly.

"Let's do this," Winchester said, clapping the man on the shoulder and together they headed for the supply cupboard.

JJ watched curiously, a hazard of her job, because something was odd about those two. They were close, that much was obvious, and she would suspect an intimate relationship from the way they were in each other's space all the time and the intense, scorching looks they shot each other, but she'd never seen them in a less professional environment . Considering the one time she'd encountered Baines outside of work, she wasn't entirely keen to repeat the experience. DiNozzo was nice enough, but his team all reminded her a little too much of their unsubs.

Less than a minute passed before they stumbled out of the closet. Winchester had a smudge of dirt on his cheek and his left sleeve was smouldering until he patted out the fire. The other man had a large, jagged rip down the side of his trench coat.

"I wasn't ready," Winchester said, breathing heavily. The other man nodded, looking a little dazed himself.

What she'd thought to be an illicit office liaison was clearly something else entirely. If not, she was more than a little worried what Winchester and his companion did on their own time.

"Perhaps more weapons?" the other man suggested and JJ fought not to react, especially when Winchester went to his desk and pulled out a machete and a shotgun. He tossed the machete to the other man, who caught it easily.

"Do you think this'll be enough?" Winchester asked, frowning thoughtfully.

"If not, I will collect Azrael."

"You know he doesn't like being called that."

The other man gave the barest hint of a smile that said he knew and did it intentionally. JJ wondered who this Azrael was.

"He insists on calling me Thumper. I assume it's derogatory from the delight he takes in it."

"It's not too bad," Winchester said with an admirable attempt at a straight face and despite herself and the confusion about the two men JJ couldn't help but smile.

"He calls you Bambi."

"Oh, now that's war."

"But first things first," the man said and Winchester nodded, hefting the shotgun in his hands. The man raised the machete and they made their way into the supply closet again. After a moment, JJ wondered what they were doing, especially when the closet was suspiciously silent. Finally, curiosity overcoming her, she went to the closet and opened the door. The small space was empty of anything but standard office supplies. No weapons, no men, and absolutely nothing to create the damage or explain where they had gone.

JJ took one more look at the empty closet and decided that it was probably a good time to head home.

...

**Part 2**

In which a member of the team is dead is everyone is mostly impatient.

...

"He dead yet?" McDonald asked. DiNozzo went to take Baines's pulse. Blood from several bullet wounds seeped into the grass beneath the body.

"Yep."

"Good, that'll make things quicker," McDonald said.

Spencer reached for his phone and hurriedly dialled 911. He was frustrated at being put on hold. He glanced around the corner again and saw McDonald toe Baines's body with his shoe. Baines flopped limply at the prodding and Spencer gagged a little at the treatment of one of their friends and colleagues. DiNozzo gave the other man a sharp look and McDonald rolled his eyes.

"Don't blame me when the prince of darkness and possessive snits gets hold of you," DiNozzo told him. McDonald scoffed but took a step back none-the-less, folding his arms and looking away.

"What's the usual time?" Winchester asked, glancing at Baines's body briefly before looking away. "You know, no matter how many times this happens, I never get used to it."

"Depends on the damage and his state beforehand," McDonald told him. "Can be anything from a few seconds to a few minutes."

"Let's hope it's a few seconds. We're a little exposed out here," DiNozzo said.

Spencer ducked back when DiNozzo looked around. Finally, he had an actual operator on the line.

"This is FBI Special Agent Spencer Reid," he told the woman on the other end of the line. "I need to report the murder of an FBI agent."

Spencer heard a gasp and then coughing and turned to look again, only to see Winchester helping Baines to his feet.

"Shot. Again," Baines said, holding up a crumpled bullet. Spencer tried to convince himself that Baines was wearing a vest, but the torn T-shirt and bloodstains belied that. "That's really getting old."

"Sir, sir, are you alright?" the woman on the other end of the line asked and it was only then that Spencer realised he was making a strangled, fearful sound and stopped.

"False alarm," he told her and hung up. For too long a moment, he wondered if his childhood fears of inheriting his mother's illness had come true.

...

**Part 3**

In which eavesdropping never reveals what you think it might.

...

Rossi stopped just outside the door to the hospital room when he heard voices talking softly. He immediately recognised Aaron's voice, but it took him a moment longer to recognise DiNozzo's. Even though it wasn't his place, Rossi had never been entirely sure of whether he approved of DiNozzo's involvement with Aaron. He seemed like a good man and a capable agent, but he and his team didn't exactly have the best reputation. Still, Rossi trusted Aaron's judgement.

"The doctor said it was old scar tissue," DiNozzo said.

"I'm alright," Aaron said, his voice soft in a way Rossi had only ever heard when Aaron was talking to Jack. DiNozzo snorted in disbelief at that and Rossi felt much the same way. The last thing Aaron would ever admit to, was not being alright.

"Dean's with Jack," DiNozzo said and Rossi tensed, but Aaron simply laughed softly.

"I hope he's not reading fairytales to him again," Aaron told him and DiNozzo laughed. There was a story there, Rossi was sure.

"No, I think they're watching Scooby Doo," DiNozzo assured.

"That might be worse."

They were silent for a long moment and Rossi was considering that this might be the moment to interrupt when DiNozzo spoke again.

"I was worried."

The words were stilted, hesitant and Rossi felt a bit more sympathetic toward DiNozzo. After all, he'd been feeling the same.

"I'm really alright," Aaron said.

"Just say no to any bright lights."

"I'm not going anywhere. I promise," Aaron reassured. There was another silence then, "I saw Haley."

"What did she have to say?"

Rossi wondered at the phrasing, at how revealing it was, and couldn't help but think about all the rumours he'd heard about DiNozzo's team. He made it a point never to believe rumours, but the evidence was mounting about DiNozzo's team.

"I could touch her, smell her perfume, taste her and it was all like it was yesterday," Aaron continued, awe in his voice.

"I'm glad you got to see her again," DiNozzo said and he really did sound like he was grateful Aaron had had the chance. Rossi wasn't sure what to make of that or any of it. He'd always believed in something greater than human beings existing in a void, but it had always been an abstract sort of belief.

"She wanted me to be open to love again. I think she was giving her permission for me to move on," Aaron said. Rossi knew it was something that had been weighing on him. Haley had been his first and only true love, at least until he'd met DiNozzo.

"From everything you've told me, she sounds like an amazing woman."

"She likes you," Aaron added. "She thinks you're good for me. And for Jack."

"Sounds like she's got good taste then," DiNozzo said, a smile in his voice.

"Well, she chose me, didn't she?" Aaron teased and it was so seldom that Rossi heard him like that that he couldn't help but smile, too. It didn't seem polite to keep lingering just outside the room, so Rossi took a few steps back then walked into room as naturally as possible. Aaron lay propped up in bed and DiNozzo sat at his bedside, one of Aaron's hands clasped in his. When DiNozzo saw Rossi in the doorway, he stood.

"I should probably check in with Jack before Dean starts dissecting all the things the Scoobies are doing wrong," he said. Aaron squeezed his hand briefly before letting him go.

...

**Part 4**

In which Lindsey is there and not.

...

Garcia raised her phone again, looking at the screen. Again, it showed an empty office.

She hadn't believed the security techs when they swore there was an invisible man on the fourth floor. It seemed ridiculous, but she hadn't been able to find any evidence of tampering in the file. And if she couldn't find it, then it didn't exist.

But she couldn't explain how she could clearly see McDonald in front of her eyes, but not on the screen. She'd seen a lot of things since DiNozzo had joined the FBI, not least of which was Dean's boyfriend disappearing into thin air.

She was glancing between the two again, absolutely intent, when someone touched her shoulder. She'd admit to almost jumping out of her skin, but she'd absolutely deny the shriek that followed. Kevin looked at her, a little amused and little embarrassed.

"Sorry," he said, stepping back a little and giving her some space. "I called your name but you didn't seem to hear me."

"You were looking for me?" she asked, because they didn't have any joint cases at the moment and she hadn't seen too much of him since they'd broken up.

"I was just wondering what you were doing down here," Kevin said. "You don't usually leave the BAU offices."

"I..." she began, but wasn't entirely sure how to justify her presence. He looked down at her phone, then at McDonald, and grinned.

"So you've seen the security footage, too," he said.

"It just doesn't make sense," she told him, glancing to the screen again.

"I find it better not to ask too many questions. It's less stressful that way."

"Lynch," McDonald said, looking in their direction. "Do you have those files?"

"Right here, sir," Lynch said quickly, raising his hand to show the flashdrive he was holding.

McDonald and Kevin had a conversation too quiet for her to hear, but she was sure they mentioned her at one point since McDonald looked directly at her at one point. Neither of them moved, although the air seemed to become charged with something like static for a moment, before it faded. She glanced once more at her screen and was surprised to see McDonald squarely in the centre of it.

When she tried to search out the security footage again, it was all gone except for her personal copies, and it had Kevin's fingerprints all over it. She wondered how he was involved in the whole thing, but she'd let him keep his secrets since she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know the answers to this one.

...

**Part 5**

In which there are some confrontations that simply can't be controlled.

...

Derek had been consulting with NYPD on a spree killer case while the rest of his team was working in San Francisco when the sighting of one of the FBIs most wanted put everything else on hold. No one asked questions when he went with the tactical team and Derek couldn't help but feel the thrum of anticipation that had always accompanied these exercises.

"Moreau's been spotted meeting with Michael Cosenza, a local businessman, at his warehouse downtown," one of the men said while strapping on a Kevlar vest.

"We've got the layout," another man said, spreading out a blueprint of the warehouse in front of them.

"Alright, we'll enter here and here," he told them, pointing at two points on the blueprint. "Our man says they're in the office here, so beta team will take cover here while alpha team makes the arrest."

It moved quickly after that and Derek used what little time he had to prepare himself for the coming assault. When they silently entered the building and moved into the warehouse, Derek felt the rising sensation that something was wrong. It only grew the further in they went.

When the beta team was in position, the leader of the alpha team kicked in the office door and entered quickly. Derek took the rear, making sure there weren't going to be any surprises.

Damien Moreau turned to face them, mouth twisted in a parody of a smile.

"How kind of you to join me," he said.

No matter what happened afterwards, no matter what the reports said, no matter the concussion the paramedics said he had, Derek was sure that he'd seen Moreau's eyes glow red and one of the policemen fly across the room with a wave of Moreau's hand.

...

**Part 6**

In which there is conversation and insight or lack thereof.

...

"Sometimes they can be so creepy," JJ said. Her eyes widened and she seemed surprised at herself and her audacity.

The others looked across the bar, past Hotch and DiNozzo leaning into one another in quiet conversation, to where DiNozzo's team sat, drinking and laughing with each other. There were several additions they recognised, like the trench-coated man, but several they didn't, like the tall dark-haired man Winchester never wandered too far from, either in gaze or touch. There were two dark-haired girls as well, one dressed as a goth, and a blond man who looked like an extra from the 80s. Even MacDonald had a good-looking man at his side, though he seemed less at ease than the others.

"I know," Garcia agreed eventually, turning back to look at the rest of the team with an exaggerated shudder.

"I don't know," Reid started hesitantly. "I think Winchester's okay." But he was frowning a little as he said it.

"You ever seen his records?" Garcia asked. The others nodded.

"He shouldn't have been able to get into the Bureau with that record," Derek said.

"He was never formally charged or convicted of anything," Reid told him. He'd looked over the records himself after running into Winchester that day in the coffee shop and there were far too many inconsistencies for most of it to make sense. More often than not, Winchester just seemed like the scapegoat.

"And DiNozzo vouched for him," Garcia added. The others looked at her and she shifted uncomfortably. It wasn't exactly information she was supposed to have. "Kevin told me."

"Why would DiNozzo do that?" JJ asked and Derek shrugged.

"Birds of a feather." He looked across the room from Winchester to DiNozzo and frowned. "Criminal fathers, dead mothers, never staying one place too long, accused of murder several times over."

Reid couldn't help but give Derek a significant look. Good people got accused of murder for all kinds of reasons. Derek looked at him then looked away and shrugged again, still not willing to let go of his distrust of DiNozzo and his team.

"Hotch trusts him," JJ said. "DiNozzo, I mean, and he seems good for him."

She was the only one who had seen them in those early days – the hesitant and serious way the usually cocksure DiNozzo had approached Hotch – and couldn't help but give him some consideration for that. If anyone gave her the creeps it wasn't DiNozzo or even Winchester, about whom there were still things she couldn't explain.

"Baines is the one I'd worry about," she said. She couldn't help but shiver a little at the memory of her encounter with him and how quickly he could change. Derek and Reid both agreed, looking a little pallid, but neither elaborated.

"I couldn't find out much about him," Garcia said. "Not much beyond the surface, at least, and I'm really not supposed to be looking beyond that."

She'd been extremely careful after her adjustments to the team's database had been discovered. DiNozzo had divided her loyalties between the FBI and Hotch, but Hotch would have been extremely upset if she'd done something to jeopardise her career and she couldn't stand him disappointed in her again.

"Kevin likes him, though," she added, then shrugged. She'd seen, if only peripherally, plenty of cases where people had been charmed by people they shouldn't really have trusted. Then again, Kevin seemed to know a lot more about the team than they did.

"I've never seen anyone change like he does," JJ said softly. She glanced at Baines and looked away quickly when he looked up, possibly feeling her gaze on him. The others frowned. Abrupt behavioural shifts were something with which they were all a little too familiar and it never meant anything good.

"Yeah, well, MacDonald doesn't change at all," Derek said. Beyond looking neutral or smug they hadn't really seen him any other way, but then they hadn't really seen much of him at all.

"He's a lawyer," Garcia said with a faint smile, but it faded quickly. They all remembered his debriefing on the case that had been mistaken for a satanic cult. He'd been far too knowledgeable about such cults for someone with a casual interest or had done research for a case.

"He was working a lot of pro-bono cases before he joined DiNozzo's team," Reid said, because that was something he could respect, especially when he tended to represent people who'd been sidelined.

"You know that the rest of the Bureau is using DiNozzo's team as a test for new agents?" Garcia asked them. They shook their heads, unaware, since they were seldom in the office for long periods of time and they didn't often get rookie agents. "They know if the rookie agents can handle the job if they come out of the encounter and they're not a complete quivering heap of nerves."

...

"Could they be any more obvious?" Dean said with a roll of his eyes. Cas frowned and craned his neck to see what Dean was talking about.

"Well they are working from a deficit of knowledge and experience," Lindsey said with a shrug, dismissing the other team.

"You're all working from a deficit of knowledge and experience," Adam said, sliding down into an impossible angle and taking a drink of his beer. Dean kicked his shin and Adam raised an eyebrow at him.

"You're working from a deficit of people skills," Lindsey told him.

"I don't have a deficit of people skills, just a deficit of caring," Adam said with a shrug.

"They say old age makes you cranky," Dean told him.

"That's a fallacy," Adam said, unruffled. "I've always been cranky."

"That's because you've always been old," Dean said.

Sam watched the exchange amused and a little wistful.

"Come on, Winchester," Faith said, grabbing Sam's hand and pulling him to his feet, her strength effortlessly overcoming his resistance. "This party needs some life."

"Hey!" Spike said.

"Let's show them how it's really done," Abby said, grabbing his hand, uncaring about its coldness, and dragging him, unresisting, with her.

"Well, alright then," he agreed easily.

"At least she's not a demon," Dean said with a shake of his head. "Or a werewolf."

"Think Tony would kill Spike if he tried anything with Abby?" Lindsey asked, hopeful but mostly joking.

"I think Abby would kill Tony if he tried," Dean said.

Nick still looked a little bemused by the group, but he smiled when Lindsey pushed a drink in his direction and brushed their knees together.

"I promise we're not always..." Lindsey began, then sighed and gave Nick a shrug. "Okay, so we are always a little insane."

Nick's smile widened a little.

"I'm getting used to insane," he told Lindsey, dimples showing. Lindsey smiled back like he couldn't help it.

"Oh god," Dean said, eyes glinting with humour. "You guys are cavity-inducing."

"Like you're one to talk," Adam told him, looking pointedly at the way Dean and Cas were pressed closely together.

"At least Cas can be seen in public."

"He could pick a friendlier face, but I think you'd have more objections to that," Adam said.

"You wouldn't?" Dean asked. Adam's smile was enigmatic.

"Is it too late to change my mind?" Nick asked. He bumped his knee against Lindsey's.

"Much too late," Lindsey told him. "You're stuck with us, now."

"I might be okay with that, too," Nick said.

...

"Think we should interfere?" Tony asked, curling his fingers around Aaron's and smiling.

"Ignore them," Aaron said, not looking away from Tony.

"They might kill each other," Tony said, sounding more amused than concerned.

"Good," Aaron told him. "It'll save us the hassle."

Tony laughed and pulled Aaron closer to give him a quick kiss.


End file.
